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> Valentine’s Day and Chocolate:

Valentine’s Day ChocolateQuick Guide:

Quick TipsBefore you mix up cupcake batter, assemble all the equipment and ingredients.

Tint an easy-to-make or storebought white icing with a few drops of food coloring. For pink, go easy with the red coloring.

When a recipe calls for “dark chocolate,” it means bittersweet or semisweet chocolate.

Use the type of chocolate listed in a recipe (don’t experiment with substitutions). And use a brand you like and trust.

Latex gloves make rolling truffles quick and easy. They keep your hands cool.

Americans spend close to $1 billion a year on chocolate on Valentine’s Day.

A Perfect Pairing

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Quick Guide: Valentine’s Day

Yummy Chocolate Cupcakes

Kids love cupcakes and Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to bake yummy chocolate ones.

Easy to bake and decorate, it’s no surprise that cupcakes are kids’ favorites. When better to bake together than on Valentine’s Day? The kitchen is warm and cozy, the perfect place to spend time with each other. Use the recipe on the next page, or rely on a boxed chocolate cake mix. These are easy for kids.

Get Ready Help the kids assemble cupcake or muffin pans, a wire cooling rack, and decorative paper or foil liners, For decorating, have vanilla and/or chocolate frosting on hand (homemade or storebought). Also have food coloring, confectioners’ sugar, and decorative sprinkles and candies. Beyond the normal cake baking equipment (bowls, scrapers, measuring cups and spoons), make sure you have a butter knife or small rubber spatula for icing the cupcakes. Even before they mix the batter, the kids should line the cupcake pans with paper or foil liners. Stores offer decorative liners for Valentine’s Day, which make the process even more fun. Inserting the liners into the pans is a task even the smallest child can master.

Bake the CupcakesPreheat the oven according to the recipe instructions. Most home ovens take a good 10 or 15 minutes to reach an accurate temperature, so plan accordingly. Help the kids mix the batter, and when it’s smooth and evenly colored, spoon it into the cupcake liners. Fill each liner only about two-thirds full to give the cakes room to expand as they bake. Cupcakes bake in roughly 20 minutes. You know they are done when a toothpick inserted into the center of one comes out clean. Let the cupcakes cool in the pans for two to three minutes before tipping them from the pan or lifting them carefully. Set them, right side up, on the cooling rack to cool completely. Don’t attempt to frost them until they are at room temperature.

DecoratingTo frost, mound each cooled cake with frosting. Using the butter knife or spatula, smooth the frosting over the top of the cupcake, leaving it mounded a little in the center. Swirl it or not! Color vanilla icing pink, lavender, or red for Valentine’s Day. To make lavender icing, stir tiny drops of red and blue food coloring into the frosting until it reaches the appropriate hue. Kids love decorating with generous dustings of white, red, and pink sprinkles. Mix and match the colors, or use them separately. Nothing could be easier! For fancier decorations, look for “decorator sprinkles” in the shape of hearts or stars and in varying shades of red, pink and purple. Try decorating icing gel to create hearts, initials, or fanciful swirls.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Quick Guide: Valentine’s Day

1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Insert decorative paper liners in 24 cupcake pan cups.

2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

3. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla on medium-high speed. When fluffy, reduce the speed to low and add the dry (flour, etc.) ingredients, alternating with the milk. Begin and end with the flour. Beat just until mixed. (Don’t worry if the batter looks a little curdled.)

4. Spoon the batter into the cupcake pans, filling each liner about 2/3 full.

5. Bake the cupcakes on the center rack of the oven for 17 to 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean and the cupcakes pull slightly away from the sides of the liners.

6. Let the cupcakes cool in the pans for about 5 minutes. Remove the cupcakes in their liners and let them cool completely on wire racks.

7. Frost and decorate the cupcakes for Valentine’s Day using white or pink-tinted Confectioners’ Sugar Frosting and seasonal candies.

Yummy Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes about 24 cupcakes

2 cups all-purpose flour2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder1 ¼ teaspoons baking soda¼ teaspoon baking powder¼ teaspoon salt10 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened1 2/3 cups sugar3 large eggs1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract1 ½ cups whole milk

Confectioners’ Sugar Frosting

Makes about 2 ½ cups

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

About 4 cups (1 pound) confectioners’ sugar

3 to 4 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 to 2 drops red food coloring, optional

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar, milk and vanilla on medium-high speed until well mixed and creamy smooth. Use right away.

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Quick Guide: Valentine’s Day

Chocolate and More Chocolate

If you like baking with, cooking with and eating chocolate, the more you know about it, the better your delicious experiences will be.

Chocolate is chocolate, right? One kind can be substituted for another in recipe, right? Wrong on both counts! Taste unsweetened chocolate and then take a bite of milk chocolate, and you will immediately know why. One tastes bitter, the other sweet and yummy. And, when heated, they do not behave in the same way. It’s good advice to use the kind of chocolate or cocoa called for in a recipe.

Unsweetened: This is also called baking, plain, or bitter chocolate. It has no added sugar or milk solids. It is pure chocolate, as close to the cocoa bean as it gets, and is called chocolate liqueur.

Bittersweet and semisweet:These are also called dark chocolate. More than a third of both bitter- and semisweet chocolate must be chocolate liqueur. Other ingredients added to them include sugar, cocoa butter, and sometimes just the tiniest amount of milk solids and vanilla. Dark chocolate is great for baking, candy making, and eating.

Milk chocolate:This must be at least 12 percent chocolate liqueur and then is bolstered with milk solids, sugar, and fat (the best milks boast cocoa butter as their fat). The relatively large percentage of milk solids makes this chocolate sensitive to heat. It is not a good cooking chocolate – but is a delectable eating chocolate.

White chocolate: This contains no chocolate liqueur — but instead is a mixture of milk solids, sugar, cocoa butter, and butterfat. The cocoa butter gives it its slightchocolate flavor and ivory hue. It’s tricky to cookwith, for the same reasons as milk chocolate.

Cocoa: Made from chocolate liqueur that is ground into powder once most of the cocoa butter is removed, this is unsweetened and, for chocolate, low in fat. The two kinds of cocoa are non-alkalized (also called natural) and alkalized (also called Dutch processed). Non-alkalized cocoa is lighter in color but bolder in flavor; alkalized cocoa tastes a little milder and smoother. If you need one and only have the other,use it.

Ganache and Truffles:Ganache is a mixture of chocolate and cream, and sometimes butter. It may be flavored or not. Truffles are made from ganache and may be enrobed or not with a thin chocolate shell. Tempered couverture chocolate is most often used for these shells It is professional-quality coating chocolate with a very high percentage of cocoa butter, and is rarely eaten out of hand. Whether you mostly cook and bake with chocolate,or prefer to eat it straight, nothing tastes better.Ever.

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Quick Guide: Valentine’s Day

Truffles, Truffles, Truffles

Making your own truffles is a luxury — and best of all, they are surprisingly easy You need the best chocolate you can find — most often bittersweet or semisweet — sugar, and heavy cream. Most recipes call for pure vanilla extract as well and perhaps a few grains of salt. Some recipes use butter, which makes the finished truffles extra luxurious. Finally, the truffles are coated in cocoa powder.

The Ganache:To begin, put chopped chocolate in a metal bowl. Heat the cream until bubbling hot and pour it over the chocolate. It’s best to pour it through a fine-mesh sieve so it’s as smooth as smooth can be. Whisk the chocolate and cream so that the chocolate melts and turns satiny. At this point, stir in vanilla and salt, if using, into the chocolate mixture, which is now called ganache. Let it cool to room temperature before refrigerating as otherwise the fat could separate.

Put the room temperature ganache in the refrigerator until it’s cold and firm.

The Method:It’s a good idea to wear Latex gloves when you make the truffles, mainly because the chocolate will melt even a little between your warm palms. If you don’t have gloves, rinse your hands in cool water and dry them well to keep them cool. Pluck walnut-sized (or smaller) pieces of ganache from the bowl and roll them between your palms into balls. They don’t have to be perfectly spherical, but should be ball-like. A little irregularity adds to their charm.

As you make each truffle, put it on a cool, clean plate.

Coating the Truffles:Some home cooks like to dip the truffles in melted chocolate as a first coat. Once they are covered with melted chocolate, they are next rolled in cocoa powder. And they’re done!

Whether you are rolling the truffles directly in the cocoa or covering them with a little melted chocolate first, put the cocoa powder on a plate or in a shallow dish large enough to give the truffles room to roll around.

Flavoring the Truffles:If you choose to flavor the ganache with liquor, coffee, fruit, herbs or spices, add these flavorings to the cream as it heats. For coffee, brew a little strong coffee or use espresso powder. Don’t use fresh herbs or citrus zest.

If you want to experiment, start with a cautious hand. Don’t overload the cream with flavorings. Use a little and taste the result. If you want to boost the flavor, do so in your next batch of truffles.

You can also choose to coat the ganache centers with finely chopped nuts or flaked coconut instead of cocoa.You can use milk chocolate or white chocolate to make truffles, too.

If you decide to make white chocolate truffles, cut the amount of cream in half (if you follow the recipe below).

For a spectacular splash, make your own chocolate truffles

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Quick Guide: Valentine’s Day

1. Put the chopped chocolate in a heat-proof bowl.

2. In a large saucepan, heat the cream and sugar over medium-high heat until gently boiling, whisking to mix and help the sugar dissolve. Slowly pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate, stirring to blend and encourage melting. Stir in the vanilla.

3. Add the butter, a tablespoon at a time, whisking until the butter emulsifies into the ganache and it’s smooth. Set aside until the ganache cools to body temperature. Cover the ganache tightly and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 4 hours until set and firm.

4. Pinch off pieces of ganache and roll them between your palms to make truffles about the size of walnuts. They do not have to be perfect rounds. Arrange the truffles on a plate or tray and refrigerate again just to chill a little (about 20 minutes).

5. Spread the cocoa powder on a flat plate or in a shallow bowl. Roll the truffles in the cocoa and then set them on a clean plate or tray. Let them set for 5 to 10 minutes before serving. They will keep for a week or so in a tightly covered container.

Classic Truffles

Makes 25 to 30 truffles

1 pound bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

2 cups heavy cream

10 tablespoons sugar

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, softened

Unsweetened cocoa powder, for coating

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Quick Guide: Valentine’s Day

Valentine was a little-known priest who believed in love. Because of this, some say, he performed marriage ceremonies even when they were forbidden by the Roman Emperor Claudius. This didn’t turn out too well for Valentine, who was caught in the act and sent to Rome to meet his fate. Whatever the cause, Valentine angered the emperor and was killed in 269 A.D. In 496 A.D., Pope Gelasius marked February 14th as a celebration in honor of his martyrdom. Today, he is still the patron saint of the betrothed. This story establishes a pretty clear connection with the day we now call Valentine’s Day, but does nothing to explain our fascination with chocolate on this holiday. Chocolate Conquers the WorldCacao trees originally grew only in the western hemisphere but when the Spanish arrived in what is now Mexico, they took cacao beans home with them on their return trips. Once chocolate was introduced to Europe, it was made deliciously palatable with the addition of sugar. At first, the Europeans only drank it, but by the nineteenth century, some creative folks were making chocolate candy. At the time, chocolate’s powers were believed to be so potent that nuns were forbidden to eat it, and French doctors prescribed it to mend broken hearts. British chocolatier Richard Cadbury is credited with being the first person to create decorative boxes for

chocolates, which he introduced in 1868. He is usually recognized, too, as the man who came up with the idea for heart-shaped boxes, a tradition that has become firmly ingrained in our culture. Today, sweethearts give each other truffles and other chocolates in gloriously romantic heart-shaped containers on Valentine’s Day. On this side of the Atlantic, Milton Hershey mass produced chocolate at his plant in rural Pennsylvania. In 1907, the now famous milk chocolate Hershey’s Kiss was introduced — still a great favorite with chocolate lovers, whether it’s Valentine’s Day or any other day of the year! Today there seems to be no end to the sorts of chocolates made with dark, milk or white chocolate. Some have fillings of fruits, caramel or nuts, while others have creamy centers.

A Sweet BusinessChocolate is big business, especially on Valentine’s Day, when some experts estimate we spend close to $1 billion on the sweet stuff. Evidently, Easter is the only time of year we spend more on chocolate. It has never been proven whether chocolate is an aphrodisiac, but scientists believe there could be a connection. Chocolate contains a chemical called phenylethylamine that some say can cause feelings of warmth and attraction. So go ahead and give a box of chocolates to someone you care about; it’s a sweet way to say “I love you.”

Valentine’s Day and Chocolate: A Perfect Pairing

Chocolate’s sweet history leads to Valentine’s Day